Justice for Kamsisomwa farmers

Fundraising campaign by Nicodem Nicolaus
  • US$110.00
    Donated So Far

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Justice for Kamsisomwa forcibly displaced farmers

The meaning of Kamsisomwa is the farmers from the areas of Kasakati, Msimba, Songambele and Mwasha remote agricultural areas from within three villages in Kigoma region. We have been cultivating there since 1991 and in 2008 we came into conflict with forest guards from the Jane Goodall Institute who cooperated with the police. We united in 2012 to demand our rights together after being tortured against the law. After making the group we have asked for help from different leaders, but because we are small scale farmers they have failed to help us. Now the aim of our group is to find donors to give us some money (like 15000$) so as to pay for the lawyers who will help us take this case to the court.

The reason for our suffering is that from 2010 the project of REDD+ was implemented in our area, however we were not involved in the planning of the project and we refused to accept it. They made the project without the consent of all the people living in our areas, which are closer to the forest. After the project started we were beaten by forest guards from the project of REDD+ and a related conservation program. They were supported by the local police force and government. They came with heavy weapons like
sub-machine guns, pistols, to make us feel afraid like they were going to kill us. People were forced to stare at the sun for some hours so until now they cannot see well. People were forced to eat soap. Also we were given matches in order to burn our houses. So houses were burnt and the property inside them because we were not permitted to remove everything from our houses. After burning our houses they used to beat us like animals. After that they forced people to go to their farm to slash all crops which were not mature. So people went and slashed their plants like banana trees, cassava, palm oil and maize. They took some animals like goats cows and hens, they used to shoot dogs. Some valuable things they used to take, like bicycles and
radios.

Some of our village leaders were working with the project, others were sympathetic and assisted us to write complaint letters however these efforts were not enough to prevent the human rights abuses of the project
of REDD+. After seeing the different actions that happened in different villages, we shared information amongst ourselves, the people who were tortured. We started to make meetings in order to discuss the issues and to cry together. We decided to sit and follow the procedures to complain about our torture. We discussed and collected money and tried to do some local work in order to send some people to court to claim for our rights. We succeeded in collecting together some money, and in discussing with some lawyers, however most of our money was used up in expenses because we are small scale farmers.

We have been several times to different government offices from the level of the Village, Ward, Division up to the District to explain about our problem. However, nobody cares and we were not helped. We were faced with many challenges and the challenges are that even in the offices where we are received well and assisted with expenses, nobody resolved our issues. We were given nice words and then we went back home. We lack enough money to support our issue and knowledge about our rights. After discovering some
of our leaders are against us we sent our claims to the honourable president, who sent a request assigning our leaders to work on it, but until now we fail to reach a solution. Until now we have not claimed our
legal rights because of low income, our poverty. Until now, we have decided to go to the radio station media. If we have enough money we can finish our issue. That’s why the farmers from Kamsisomwa group we decided to sit together to send our complaints to the social media. We have a blog about
our case on the REDD+ Monitor website at:


https://redd-monitor.org/2018/04/06/jane-goodall-institutes-redd-project-in-tanzania-a-totalitarian-approach-to-conservation-that-led-to-increased-inequity-undermining-of-democracy-and-violent-evictions/

Organizer

  • Nicodem Nicolaus

Donors

  • Rolf Schnaufer
  • Donated on Jun 12, 2019
$10.00
  • Ian & Cathlin Manning
  • Donated on May 14, 2019
  • Glad to hear you found a lawyer Nicodem (kindly send me your contact details - and the lawyer's). I have written to Jane Goodall requesting she explain what has happened, and to repair the damage. The Institute should withdraw the REDD+ landgrab scheme and make reparations to the abused. REDD+ is a major scam, and the Goodall Institute should be ashamed of its involvement. I have been fighting REDD+ in Zambia where they are ushered in by USAID. Goodall appears not to know that REDD+ stops us paying attention to the real problem of ensuring that we keep fossil fuels in the ground. Ian ([email protected])

$5.00
  • Nicodem Nicolaus
  • Posted On May 14, 2019
  • We wrote that “we were not involved in the planning of the project and we refused to accept it”. The Jane Goodall Institute worked with the village leaders to plan the project and they held a village general assembly meeting. We were not informed about that meeting and so we did not know about it until it had already passed. Our areas are far away from the village office. In Mwasha, after the first meeting of REDD+, to select the youth and have the training for the forest monitors, the forest monitors came to Mwasha and asked us to move. They just came saying “move, because we have set this part for conservation so that we can sell carbon air.” They just told us to move. - by Ibrahim, farmer from Mwasha

May 14

The farmers from Mwasha Area

Update posted by Nicodem Nicolaus at 01:01 pm

Thank you for donating and helping us to start our campaign. We have been able to find a good lawyer and get some advice on how to open our case. All the farmers whose houses were burnt have been asked to sign that they support the case and are ready. . . . .

See update
1

Donors & Comments

9 donors
  • Rolf Schnaufer
  • Donated on Jun 12, 2019
$10.00
  • Ian & Cathlin Manning
  • Donated on May 14, 2019
  • Glad to hear you found a lawyer Nicodem (kindly send me your contact details - and the lawyer's). I have written to Jane Goodall requesting she explain what has happened, and to repair the damage. The Institute should withdraw the REDD+ landgrab scheme and make reparations to the abused. REDD+ is a major scam, and the Goodall Institute should be ashamed of its involvement. I have been fighting REDD+ in Zambia where they are ushered in by USAID. Goodall appears not to know that REDD+ stops us paying attention to the real problem of ensuring that we keep fossil fuels in the ground. Ian ([email protected])

$5.00
  • Nicodem Nicolaus
  • Posted On May 14, 2019
  • We wrote that “we were not involved in the planning of the project and we refused to accept it”. The Jane Goodall Institute worked with the village leaders to plan the project and they held a village general assembly meeting. We were not informed about that meeting and so we did not know about it until it had already passed. Our areas are far away from the village office. In Mwasha, after the first meeting of REDD+, to select the youth and have the training for the forest monitors, the forest monitors came to Mwasha and asked us to move. They just came saying “move, because we have set this part for conservation so that we can sell carbon air.” They just told us to move. - by Ibrahim, farmer from Mwasha

  • Pennie Plant
  • Donated on May 07, 2019
  • REDD and all forms of carbon offsets allow the fossil fuel industry to continue. In many cases, like this one, Free Prior & Informed Consent, as stated in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. has not been followed. While I have been a fan of Jane Goodall's most of my life, I am deeply disappointed that she supports REDD programs in Africa which have evicted many people from their territories and even resulted in at least one death of a child. And, I hope that she reconsiders her idea of endorsing any carbon offset program anywhere.

$20.00
  • Anonymous
  • Donated on May 07, 2019
Amount Hidden
  • Larry Lohmann
  • Donated on May 05, 2019
$25.00
  • Susanna Nordlund
  • Donated on May 03, 2019
$5.00
$20.00
  • Niyi Asiyanbi
  • Donated on May 02, 2019
$10.00
  • Anonymous
  • Donated on Apr 30, 2019
$10.00
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Followers

4 followers
Cory Morningstar
Ricardo Coelho
Ian & Cathlin Manning
Chris Lang
US$110.00
Donated So Far

No more donations are being accepted at this time. Please contact the campaign owner if you would like to discuss further funding opportunities

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